As winter arrived suddenly and with unexpected ferocity this year, the Island is once again indebted to an informal network of people who take it upon themselves to look after those who for a variety of reasons are in need of food and shelter.

Every day of the week, Islanders can get a hot meal at one of the many churches that have coordinated their community suppers so there is always a place to go. Free meals are available on Thursdays and Fridays in Vineyard Haven, on Sundays and Mondays in Edgartown, in Chilmark on Tuesdays, in West Tisbury on Wednesdays and on Saturdays in Oak Bluffs. The locations and times are listed here.

Churches in Vineyard Haven and Edgartown become Houses of Grace shelters at seven o’clock every night, welcoming all who need a quiet bed and a hot meal. By day, there are formal and informal warming shelters, including libraries and other municipal buildings. Some individuals seek respite from the cold at the Steamship Authority terminal; others ride all day on Vineyard Transit Authority buses.

Hunger and homelessness seem inconceivable on a small Island with the wealth of Martha’s Vineyard, but it only takes sharing a meal at a community supper or visiting one of the Island’s Houses of Grace to put a human face on the issue. These are not faceless strangers, but members of our community who have fallen on hard times.

Surprisingly and shamefully, there is no government agency with funding to serve as a safety net for Islanders trying to make it through a brutal New England winter. Karen Tewhey, whose impressive title of Dukes County’s associate commissioner for homeless prevention belies the fact that she is a volunteer, points out that while there are four organizations on Martha’s Vineyard providing shelter for homeless animals, there is no formal shelter for individuals.

Instead, she and others, especially clergy and parishioners at many of the Island churches, have pieced together small grants and donations to provide emergency housing for families and to pay for supplies and food. A group of about a dozen people calling themselves the MV Network for Homeless Prevention has been meeting for two years with the goal of creating a permanent Island shelter.

It is heartening to see how much has been accomplished by a group of people who come from different faiths but are willing to work together in the shared belief that a community takes care of its own. The Island’s churches deserve the lion’s share of credit for creating a security blanket from the patchwork of efforts addressing hunger and homelessness.

But the Island should not be relying on churches to provide its citizens with the basic necessities of life. If the county is to take on the issue of homelessness, it needs a recurring, reliable source of funding to carry out its mission and public support to get it done.